I bought it a couple of years ago as I was getting into Retrobikes. At the time it was honest, mostly original but in a pretty sorry state.

I set about a big restoration job that involved a total strip down, dismantle and rebuild of all components including the forks and most significantly a strip back to bare metal and repaint in the right RAL colour and new decals from Gil.

The restoration thread is here (although pics are absent at present thanks to Photobucket).

It is largely factory spec or bits that look identical to factory spec. Only notable non spec aspects are that one of the shifters is an Xray not the expected SRT 600 and the tyres are both black wall Panaracer Smokes.

Key thing is it all works, and the elastomers allow both ends to bounce up and down.

The only issue is that when we moved house a notable bit of paint got chipped down to primer. I was hopping mad about this as you can imagine.

It really is a lovely thing, shame for it to go but I need to have a little clearout and I've still got two 857s that need attention!

I'm a few miles south of Crewe. I'd much, much rather someone came to get it and had a chance to look it over. I'd be happy to travel a reasonable way with it. Failing those options we could courier it if we can come to an agreement.

No worries, that's really interesting, I'd not spotted that before. The number of elastomers it has is how it came to me, and there wasn't a spare one of those spacers that go between them kicking about. I was busy being amazed they weren't a crumbly mess.

I will say that after those pics (taken just after I finished it) I did some adjusting and the forks do sit better, the alignment wasn't right. In terms of movement and apparent travel they feel fine. I've just been out to check and yes, judging by the angles of the two linkages now they're much more like the other two pictures than the pictures of mine.

I have ridden it a couple of times gently offroad (tow path type of things) and it's seemed fine. The stem is "slammed" and flipped over as I was always an XC tart and like that aesthetic.

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